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The one we have been waiting for

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 13 / 16
Date: August 14, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I got this game a year ago, and last year I hade a very crapy Compaq with integrated graphics and 256Mb RAM. I Ran this game. It was a Huge step from 2002. It was so good, I built a computer with almost the best Hardware in it, including the ATI X800 Pro Which came out not to long ago. When I take screen shots I keep them in the My pictures folder aswell as the real pictures I take with cameras. Sometime I cant tell the difference between what the sim produces and what the Real world produces. The aircraft are the same exact models as they were in Fs2002 with the exception of the vintage ones. That is no worry as you can easily download more aircraft on websites. The weather is great the clouds look real. FYI it will be hard to controll the aircraft with out a joystick or a yoke. Also it will be confusing to the new people at first. There are some good forums out there too. I like um one especially (too bad I can't include URL's). Well that is my breif opinion on the game. It is well worth what ever your paying in fact if it were 100 bucks i would still get it!

Good, but typical Microsoft

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 14 / 18
Date: January 31, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I'm fourteen and greatly interested in flight as a future career. So when I got FS 2004 for Christmas, I was thrilled, and hoped that it would help me study before I began taking courses. It was my first FS game, and the sleek, simple menues gave a very good first impression. The Learning Center provides a ton of information on pretty much everything to do with flight, and the Historical Flights section is very interesting. I couldn't wait to start flying. And here's where Microsoft's old problem turns-up--cool and flashy on the outside, not so good once you get to know it. To make this easier to explain, I've divided the remainder of the review into several sections, each discussing an important aspect of the game:

Flight:
I've never actually flown a real airplane before, so I can't compare FS flight to flying in real life. I was quite impressed, however, and the cockpits looked reasonably realistic. Take-off, landing and all the other manuevers associated with flying are pretty much the same in the game, and ATC is excellent and makes the entire experience feel realistic. For new-comers who don't yet know how to work with the radio, FS has an 'automated tuning' feature, which enables you to simply choose the desired frequency off a list.

Realism:
The amount of realism in the game largely depends on what options you set in the Settings menue. However, for the most realistic flying experience, I recommend setting everything to hard, so that the airplane will actually crash if it hits the ground at an inappropriate angle, instead of just bouncing off it. 'Hard' settings will also enable collisions with buildings and other aircraft, although due to the inaccuracy of object boundaries, sometimes a plane will 'crash' even though it hasn't even touched the object--one of the many flaws found in the game. However, novices can choose the 'Easy' settings which will disable all this. Now comes the downside to FS realism. Two things; First, the crashes themselves are utterly stupid and unrealistic. I mean, when an airplane collides with a mountain at 200kph, it doesn't just freeze and remain intact. I expect to see at least some signs of damage--broken windshield, severed wings, charred ground, etc. I know this isn't a combat game, but even so, no damage at all, just the words CRASH on the screen is pretty disappointing. Then there's the second problem--graphics.

Graphics:
The graphics in Microsoft Flight simulator are totally and utterly terrible! I've got a 2004 model computer, with a RADEON 7000 IGP graphics card which enables me to have the diplay at the 'High' settings option (Ultra-high is the max.). And still, the buildings and water are horrendous. The ocean looks like its been moulded, and houses and trees are blurry and inaccurate, more like a child drew them. The ground itself is just flat and boring, with a smudgy green surface that's supposed to resemble grass. Airport surfaces are ok, with individual cement tiles slightly visible, but still a far stretch from real life. From afar, mountains, valleys and cities look stunning, but the closer you get, the less so.

Weather:
Ahh, yes, what Microsoft bragged about most in this game--the weather features. Let me start off by saying that the clouds do look good. They're 3D, (as opposed to the 2D clouds present in old FS games)and actually move with time. That's about it. Snow and rain look good within the cockpit, but once you shift to the outside view, rain becomes hardly visible and more like flimsy lines, or in the case of snow, isolated flakes. I've flown through clouds before in real life (in the passengers seat), so I have a good idea of what it's like. In the game, as you move from clear sky to cloud, instead of there being a gradual progression with the cloud becoming more and more dense, the screen just goes from being clear to cloudy in one second. The same goes for fog. And if you're hoping for any of the dramatic 'flying above a sea of clouds', you'll be disappointed--what looks like a completely overcast sky from bellow turns into boring, isolated clumps of cloud the closer you get to cloud level.

General:
I think I've covered most of the important aspects of the game. The only other thing worth mentioning is the flying lessons. Allthough these are a fun and good way to learn, you're intructer keeps failing you if you don't do exactly as told and ends the lesson. This can get extreamly annoying, especially if you're having trouble with something, and then don't even get the chance to figure out how to correct your mistakes. Overall, though, it's a fun game and a good way to learn flying. But as I said, Microsoft looks good on the cover, but the deeper you dig, the crummier it gets. At times the game can feel totally patched together, and by God, if you don't have a fast computer, the constant freezing will drive you nuts. Buy this game if you want to learn how to fly without pouring over books, but unless you have the best computer on the market, don't expect to get mind-blowing graphics. It's this and all the minor flaws, especially the 'patched-together' feeling of the game that end-up degrading the fun and overall value of this game.

Excellent Flight Simulator

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 10 / 11
Date: January 10, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game is the fourth game in a series of Microsoft Flight Simulator games released by Microsoft. This is also the best of the four. This game features all of the most current aircrafts and is used in several colleges where aviation is a primary degree that students seek. This game features extremely realistic 3D graphics and has almost all airports located within the U.S. This game even has my airport which is in a town consisting of approximately 9,000 people. Some major retailers no longer offer this game for sale due to the fact that it has been labeled as a "terrorism training tool" due to its stunning realism. As with all Microsoft products, if your system barely meets the minimum system requirements, your game will likely be choppy and crash frequently. If your system exceeds the minimum requirements by a great deal, you will likely have an excellent game play experience. This game is best played with a 3D graphics rendering card and a joystick. You can play this game using the keyboard however that will drastically reduce the realism effect that the game has when playing it with the actual joystick. Overall I gave the game four out of five stars due to the fact that it did crash frequently on my system that barely met the minimum requirements however once I turned down the realistic effects in the options it did improve my game performance. When testing this game on a system that drastically exceeded the reccommended requirements, I experienced no difficulties whatsoever with the game and the simulation was extremely realistic.

Not at all what I expected.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 11 / 13
Date: September 23, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Having never played a sim that wasn't based on space combat or battle mechs I thought this game would be kind of boring. After waiting until after forever I took another look at it when the price went down and decided to give it a shot and I'm glad I did.

Flight Simulator managed to captivate, facinate, and challenge me without combat or competitions.

Incredible

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: February 23, 2006
Author: Amazon User

As a commercially multi instrument rated pilot I have to say this is the best sim I have ever flown. I basically shot approaches of most of the airports I have flown in real life in this sim and found it to be pretty darn on the money.
I still have yet to fly all the aircraft,the instructional
parts and all the extras. I wish I had this when I was training for my ratings!
The weather is also incredible. It feel like I am really in the "soup". The snow when hitting the cockpit window melts! Incredbile detail.
Excellent for the pro and non pro alike!

Very Enjoyable!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: January 09, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Nearly purchased Flight Simulator X, but after reading the reviews on Amazon, and from a recommendation from my brother I am glad that I chose the 2004 version.
The program is easy to install and understand and extremely enjoyable.
Highly recommended.

flight simulator

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: January 13, 2007
Author: Amazon User

we are very pleased with this simulator- it works very well with the controls we had previously purchased. very realistic. lots of things to do

excellent

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: January 27, 2007
Author: Amazon User

i got it for christmas and its awesome. I have a list on aircraft you should fly on how good of a pilot you are.

Novice: Beechcrafts, cessnas, and helicopters
these are easy to fly and takeoff crafts. the only downside is that you do not get as much speed as you would in jets.

Intermediate: Learjet 45, 737, 777
these are jets that can reach high speeds. out of all these the learjet 45 is the most difficult to fly.

Expert: 747, concorde

these planes reach very high speeds and are therefore difficult to handle.

If you are not satisfied with the Arsenal of planes FS2004 gives you... copy this to your URL for free add-ons: [...]

Downloading planes into FS2004

1. right click the fs2004 icon on desktop
2. click properties
3. click find target
4. click aircraft
5. drag your UNZIPPED file into the aircraft folder.

HAVE FUN!!!

Good, Solid Game : Blurry Graphics

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: February 06, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Bought this game after i tested out FSX. FSX is a real burden on the PC(P4 2.4Ghz, 1.25GB RAM, GeForce 7800 GS OC). This game has great gameplay and plus you can fly old airplanes. I recommend this game to anyone who is interested in flying. One problem: When I put my graphics on full, the scenery becomes blurry, and often refreshes its pixals almost like 4 billion times a second. This puts a strain on my eyes. Other than that, a great game to buy.

Fight Review

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: March 15, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I am a flight instuctor and instrument rated commercial pilor and I use this program to help me stay proficient with Instrument procedures. I creat real world flights to airports and and then fly the full approach. It is really helpful in keeping up with procedures.

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